Couples Training

By Bruce Cohn
Boston Globe, January 8, 2004
 
There's no place like home for the holidays. While we look forward to spending time with the people who are important to us, we rarely consider using that time to exercise together. And working out together is a great opportunity to both stay in shape and connect.

Perhaps you and your partner have thought about doing some kind of training together but worried that your size and strength differences would make that impossible. Relax; the good news is that there are a number of easy ways for both of you to get a satisfying workout at home. For when it comes to partner training, while size matters, it is not as important as the ability to work together.

To convince myself I enlisted the aid of Cindy Barlow, owner of Smart Moves, a company that helps clients turn stress into vitality, and a yoga/pilates teacher in the Boston area. Although I am eight inches taller and seventy-five pounds heavier than she, we each found the following workout to be beneficial, challenging and invigorating.

One of the most inexpensive and fun ways to strength train together at home involves PVC piping. Buy a ten foot length of one and a quarter inch PVC at Home Depot for less than three dollars and have it cut into two five foot lengths. You and your partner will provide resistance for one another using the five foot bar.

Tug of War Walks:
Standing on opposite sides of the piping, Cindy and I each place our right hand eight to twelve inches forward of our left hand. We squat into our legs with backs straight and stomachs drawn in. Our right foot is forward of our left foot. As Cindy steps backward with her left foot and pulls on the PVC, I resist but step forward with my right in rhythm with her step. She continues stepping backwards for ten to twelve steps and then it is my turn to step backward as she steps forward.

Make sure you are pulling from the legs and torso and not just yanking the PVC with your arms. If you stay down in a squat position as you walk you will feel this burn in your leg, core and arm muscles. Switch to the other side of the piping into a left foot/left hand forward position and repeat this walk backward and forward with your partner.

Samurai Sword:
Cindy gets into the “athletic stance” with feet hip-width apart, knees bent, belly button drawn into her spine, chest up and aligned over the thighs and shoulder blades drawn in. She holds the PVC tubing in a vertical position at arms length from her body with right hand six inches above the left. She closes her eyes and tries to keep the bar from moving as I lightly hit the bar in all directions for thirty seconds. After we reverse roles, we repeat with left hand above the right.

Concentrate on keeping your shoulder blades drawn in, forearms locked and core muscles engaged. You may be surprised at how difficult it is to keep the PVC from moving during this rhythmic stabilization exercise. Your partner will need to adjust the force with which s/he hits the piping based on how well you keep it from moving.

Push/Pull Variations:
We face one another in our athletic stances. I place my hands on the PVC shoulder-width apart with palms facing down and lower down into a quarter-squat. Cindy places her hands on piping to the inside of mine and stands upright. As Cindy pulls the PVC up towards her chin in a rowing motion--keeping her elbows above the level of her wrists--I provide resistance. Now I pull the piping down, maintaining straight arms as Cindy provides resistance. We each perform ten to twelve repetitions and then reverse roles. The partner who is rowing will feel this in the upper shoulders; the person pulling down is working the upper back. You will both be working your core muscles if you can maintain the proper stance.

A variation that targets your arms can be done with a few simple adjustments. I place my hands shoulder-width apart on the PVC with palms facing up while Cindy places hands face down close enough together so that her elbows are against her ribs. As I bend the arms at the elbow to curl the bar up, Cindy provides resistance. Once the PVC has been raised, Cindy pushes down--extending her arms at the elbow--while I resist. We repeat for twelve to fifteen repetitions and switch. Raising the piping works biceps and lowering it works triceps.

Resistance Bands/PVC Fly:
If you own a resistance band--otherwise they can be purchased relatively cheaply in most sporting goods departments or online--try this exercise in combination with PVC to complement your partner workout. Cindy holds the piping vertically as described in the Samurai Sword while I wrap the band around the PVC. She will get a core and shoulder stabilization workout while holding the piping.

I stand in a split stance (one foot forward and rear foot angled so that my hips are square) with my back to Cindy holding the PVC. Gripping the band handles with arms out perpendicular to my chest and elbows slightly bent, I pull my hands towards each other and extend my arms straight out in front of my chest in an arcing motion. After fifteen repetitions it is Cindy’s turn.

Medicine Ball Twists:
We stand back to back, arms distance apart. Each of us is in the athletic stance and Cindy is holding a 2 or 3 kg. medicine ball extended in front of her body in line with her navel. (You can substitute another object that weighs 4-6 pounds but the ball is easier to handle.) She rotates left and I rotate right to receive the ball. The circle is completed when I rotate left and the ball is received by Cindy who twists to the right. We perform fifteen repetitions and repeat starting in the opposite direction. We can increase the difficulty if we both rotate to our left forcing us to get a greater range of movement.

Stay low in your legs, draw your belly button in and keep the back straight by envisioning a steel rod running through your spinal column. Go slowly and feel the movement coming from the center of your body. Moving too quickly will only make you dizzy. Remember to turn on the balls of your feet as you rotate to free your hips and protect your back.

Finish your workout with these partner yoga poses. They’re fun, release tension and enable each of you to stretch farther than you might on your own.

Suspension Bridge:
We stand facing each other with our feet hip-width apart. We extend our arms forward and grasp each other’s wrists. Keeping our legs straight, we pull back on each other’s arms and press our hips back as our heads move towards each other. This is a great stretch for the back and legs.

Bruce Cohn is the Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Middlesex School in Concord. He runs FIT-TO-GO Total Sports Conditioning and is a nationally certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Bruce can be reached at 781-316-0061 or brucegym@rcn.com.